November summary

 

Over this month I have concentrated on ‘SEEING AND BEING SEEN’, this has been my main focus as I have received feedback questioning what I am seeing. I have previously set myself too many targets or areas to look at and not fully given my attention to each one. I feel this has resulted in me not feeling like I have achieved anything, therefore I decided this month I would give my full attention to ‘seeing and being seen’ in all classes and self-practice.

In relation to Friday classes, moving from the Star Fish onto the Sea Squirt, there is a shift in organisation from the centre, to the head. This is where the digestive track and the mouthing pattern come into play. The mouthing pattern connects the Sea Squirt and babies together as they both explore and investigate through their mouth.  

I have really enjoyed learning about the mouthing pattern and the movement development in babies. This has a close relation to the learning's about the digestive system. From one of the self-study movement tasks I found when moving with the mouthing pattern I started thinking about leading with the head. After I noticed this I brought in the awareness of the digestive track a found this is a place I like to be.

Referring back to my October blog I talked about experiencing a new experience, this is most present in the self-study tasks as I always refer back to what we did in lesson. However on Tuesday in our release class we repeat phrases and within these I always try and bring a new awareness each time. This question is still an ongoing puzzle that I would like to explore more next term.

October Summary

The first few Friday classes around perception and senses gave me a lot of food for thought, and helped clarify and understand my question for dissertation which is around sense perception. By practically learning about this made it easier for me to remember the important aspects. I always knew I was a visual learning, but by actually moving with information I found is a lot better.

Learning about cells and doing the self-study task, moving with the awareness of the cells brought up a challenge or question:  

How can I experience a new experience and understand it as a new experience?

Do I have to?

This came after having previously in class done the same task, I found myself just thinking and noticing what I felt the first time, therefore having the same experience. Then this also brings up a question about my question:

Isn’t it always a new experience?   

These questions are like puzzles I would like to try and gather the piece and fix them together.

The Navel Radiation Pattern was very clear for me, and my interpretation before moving and after moving with this awareness was different in terms of shape.

 

This could have been because we were curling and uncurling during moving.

The Navel Radiation Pattern has been an aspect of the Friday classes I have taken into other classes, especially in Tuesdays release class. It has worked as a kind of grounding and lengthening tool in my moving. Also in Mondays SRT classes with Katye the lengthening though the centre idea has been valuable in my improvisation, allowing me to use full range without strain. Yoga is another class where the connection with The Navel Radiation pattern is used.

Overall this month there has been a journey with my academic learning and understanding, with my movement practice. The information has informed my moving allowing more awareness of my bodily functions.

3rd year so far

So far in 3rd year I have a greater understanding of somatic practices. This has informed me and given me specific interests for my dissertation question, around senses. I enjoy learning about the anatomy and I find it allows me to work with clear images in lessons, especially when arriving in all classes as I struggle to stay with things that don't give me a clear picture. 

Contact improv 19/2/13

During contact improv today i really felt that i am getting better at giving my weight, throughout the task i felt i could totally let go and let Beth and Emma hold me.
I also felt the sense of exploration because i  was able to let go i could really explore what i wanted to explore and i felt very much like i was getting what i needed.

I liked the fact we were working in 3s and i think that helped with the weight issue, but also i like that it just mixed things up at bit as i always feel we work in partners in contact improv.

Limon Technique 13/2/13

Limon Technique is something that i haven't done or know much about, so this lesson was really a taster session to get to know the technique.

When rolling down i noticed how stiff my lower back is and whilst sat down when i got to a certain point i found i needed to lean forwards as i could curve anymore. I also found that i was much better at leaning to the left which shows that my right side is much more free.

In the exercise with the shoulders i felt alot more comfortable when the chest and torso were involved, i think the is because there is more range of movement and also they are the body parts that are more likely to be used.

The technique felt quite ballet like, however it was looking at being pulled from different directions which for me was more about lengthening in them areas. I think the lengthening is something i have learnt from uni as before at college i always thought of being pulled up rather than lengthening.

Overall i really had fun in this class and this technique is something i would like to do more of.

Moving forwards

Moving forwards and not getting stuck in movement is something i have been working on in class, mostly Kaytes class's however, i am aware of it whenever i improvise.  i have been working on continually to move my feet and not stopping and going backwards, i have found the more i think about this the harder it gets and i start decorating the moves, whereas if i don't think to much just let it happen then the moves come alot easier.

Not thinking links with alot of my moving, i have a habit of over thinking the movement and not letting it flow.

SRT-3 31/1/13

Tipping

I noticed when tipping I don't tend to tip on my left leg naturally, i found this strange as my left leg is the strongest. This however, could be because my left hip is tighter and generally my left leg is less flexible. In the nest few lesson I need to pay attention to this not only when tipping to see if i do the same thing at any other time.

I found this quote which made me think about how i do hold in my hip and think about holding my self up when i need to balance.

"Balance is found by expanding multi-directionally rather than by holding"

During the next lesson i will experiment with this in mind.


Thread/ Ropes

Today the imaginary 'ropes' felt really visible and strong whilst moving, and when they were 'cut' it felt  strange.

I couldn't quite understand why it felt strange

Do i need to?

SRT-2 17/1/13

After this lesson I felt really full of air in the upper half of my body and in the lover half I felt empty. This could of been because i was focusing on lifting out through my skull, therefore my energy was was around the top of my body.

What is a full feeling?

What is an empty feeling?

SRT-1 10/1/13

Melting

In this Skinner class we started with melting into and out of floor, once I had been shown the blanket being lowed and raised out of the the floor the image was really clear for me. I felt the difference between before being shown the blanket and after, as I had a clear image in the my head.

I concentrated on relaxing and letting go in places of my body that I thought need to be tense in order to get me to the ground and back up again. I found my upper body was the most relaxed and my legs (thighs) were the tensest.



Floating Skull Strings

I sometimes feel as floating skull strings are familiar to me now I can easily forget the imagery and go into moving straight away, I felt this during the lesson when we were tipping from our strings. I forgot all about the strings and the imagery and just naturally went into the familiar tipping movement. When I noticed that I was doing this I felt strange to stop and rethink the image of the strings and concentrate on moving from the strings. However once I did the movement felt easier, this could have been because I had something else to concentrate on.

The Familiar becomes the Unfamiliar

When moving with the skull strings my pace is quite slow and controlled, however when I 'cut' them I noticed my pace picks up and I also go in and out of the floor.

Try for next time changing the pace when I am working with skull strings and also move in and out of the floor.


Shoulder Dance

After the Shoulder dance my arms felt:

• Lose
• Free
• Not connected to my body
• Full
• Aware of them
• Tingling feeling

Performance Project Summary Term 1

Performance project has been a great experience and a real learning curve and my journal shows the progress and all my thoughts but I thought I'd put the summary on my blog.

Overall I found out that I'm a person who needs  and likes to be  organised,  this was from my second  role as company manager and also the  process of the whole project.  I found a lot of confidence within this  process however  I still feel I need to be more confident.

From the performance side I feel that the piece that I did  taught me a lot  and he gave me a a real chance  to improve my  performance. I found it a challenge at first however I had an open mind and found a way to approach it. I noticed that the less moving (dancing) you do,the more performance you have to give as your body isn't doing showing or giving and performance though your body.

As I have been interested in doing lighting and sound for shows I put myself forward to help out with the tech get in day for our project. I enjoyed learning about how to do the cues, set up light and how a general show is ran. However as our group didn't get to support another groups work I didn't get the change to work on a show. As I am still un decided about what I want to do after uni I trying to gain many different skills and experience new things in order to help me out.

 

Arms 14/11/12

During this lesson the focus was with the arms, and giving weight through the arms. One of the first things I noticed during the partner graphic of the collar bone is that mine are quite prominent compared to my partners, after this had been pointed out I really felt aware of them.


My thoughts of giving weight through my arms was that it looks like it would hurt, this automatically made me a bit sceptical into giving all of my weight. However, almost as soon as I gave some of my weight I was able to realise and give all my weight faster than I thought I would be able to.
During the task one person had to let go and I was to take my weight again only on one side, I found really strange have one side different and it took a lot of concentration for me to understand what was going on.
Giving my weight during the task I had the image of scales. And I found it hard to find the right balance.


After the lesson the sensation I felt in my arms where FUZZY, BLOODY and FULL. Compared to other sensations from previous lessons these were quite strong.

Why do I feel more in my arms ?
Was it because it was a different task to usual?

Improv with Jenna Hubbard 14/11/12

What do i like to do in improv?

I like to explore improv and play around with it to create movement phrases.

Under the Bed

Under the Table

Under a childs shelf

Under my shelf

Which one did i feel best in? - 
Under the Table, this range of movement is where i felt most comfortable in.
Why?-
I Dont know, i have always felt comfotable near the floor but not stuck to the floor, which is why i like the Table better than the bed.

During these tasks there was a question about ARMS, and what do they do in each of these stages.
For me the most comfortable but then confusing was Under my shelf. I felt now i was up and using all my body the arms come into play. I felt i used them to perform my movements and assist the rest of my body. CAN THEY JUST DO THERE OWN THING ???

Skull 23/10/12

Today's lesson about the skull brought up manyof images for me.

One image i had was a crash helmet in small pieces like a jigsaw, this was one of the strong images.

 




The edges of the pieces of bone come together like a jigsaw within the skull. Through out that lesson this was the image that stuck with me and in a way it felt like it changed the way i held my head ( it felt more delicate).